Poll: 48% of Ukrainians communicate in Russian

Sunday, June 18, 2017 6:00:35 PM

50.5% of the Ukrainian population use the Ukrainian language as the main language of everyday communication, according to a large poll conducted by the leading sociological centers of the country, KIIS, Rating, SOTSIS, and the Razumkov Center.

The results of the poll are explained in an article for DT.UA by People's Deputy, Ihor Hryniv, and Polish politician, Miroslav Cech.

According to the study results, the majority of Ukrainians speaking mainly in Ukrainian live in the west (97.2%) and in the south-west (91.6%) of the country.

Moreover, the use of the Russian language as the main language of everyday communication is used by 24% of the respondents. The same number of respondents (24%) answered that they speak both Ukrainian and Russian languages.

At the same time,the number of citizens of Ukraine, who consider themselves Ukrainians by nationality today is 90.6% of the population. According to the survey,only 6.3% consider themselvesRussians by nationality, with 2.7% indicating nationalities other than Ukrainian or Russian. It was found that young people aged 18-24 commonly claimed aUkrainian national identity.

“The survey results show thatalthough there has beena significant increase in declarations of Ukrainian national identity,therehas not been a similar change in the language practice. People with this point of view are conservative and notreadily open tochangegenerally accepted practices.This was not the situation inKyiv, where for the first time people who at home speak only in Ukrainianoutnumberthose who speak exclusively in Russian,”the article stated.

The poll was carried out by four major sociological centersinUkraine in March of this year.The survey had 14,000respondents, 500 in each region, and1,000 respondentsintheKyiv, Kharkiv,and Odessa regions.